


77. lessons in love

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [290]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 13:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10640790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: Sarah comes and visits the Hendrixes a few days after the full moon.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [328\. equinox](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9839909) by [piggy09](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09). 



> Credit goes to [shapechangersinwinter](http://www.shapechangersinwinter.tumblr.com) for letting me play around in her "what if werewolves were full wolf on the full moon and full human on the new moon and spent the rest of the time as a horrifying in-between" sandbox.
> 
> [warning: body horror]

Sarah gets back from Canada the day of the full moon, and – stupid – waits a few days before she goes and checks in on the Hendrixes. A few days after the full moon is too many days.

By that she means: when Sarah opens the door to the basement, there’s the scrabbling of nails on hardwood floor and they’re only partway dog-nails. They are, almost, her nails.

Sarah is knocked to the floor (carpeted, thankfully) by a hundred and twenty pounds of almost-dog, Helena’s patchy tail beating itself frantically against the ground as she shoves her nose into Sarah’s neck and smells her. Sarah scratches behind Helena’s ears, feeling where her fur is starting to curl already. A few days after the full moon means a few days closer to human means a horror, Sarah’s sister a horror, Sarah’s dog a horror. Helena neither of those things, not Sarah’s sister or Sarah’s dog.

“Arruhf,” Helena growls. She struggles with the _S_ , when she’s like this. The closer she gets to new moon the more she’ll say Sarah’s name, the more she’ll say _sestra_. Human mouths are more made for that sort of consonance.

“Hey, dogbreath,” Sarah says. “You’re crushing me, yeah?”

Helena makes a _garuff_ noise that could mean anything and does not move. Her tail is whacking itself against Sarah’s leg, desperate. She whines a series of pitches that aren’t words – she can make occasional consonants, _ainrrrrdoo_. Doesn’t mean anything. It breaks Sarah’s heart, always, when Helena tries to speak.

“Missed you too,” she says, and she guessed right: Helena’s tail thumps one more time and then she pulls herself off of Sarah and shakes. Sarah looks at her tail, which is the easiest part of her. It’s just a tail. The fur is starting to fall off a bit, and it’s starting to shrink, but it isn’t Sarah’s eyes looking at her from a face that isn’t nearly as much dog as it should be.

Shit. Not dog, _wolf_ , Helena’s a wolf. It’s just easier—

“Arruhf,” Helena says, and – god help her – Sarah looks at her. The muzzle’s staring to sink back in, after the full moon, and Helena’s mouth is a jumble of mismatched teeth. Blonde curls are twining around ears that are just too low to be a d—be a wolf’s ears. Sarah can see the rosiness of her cheeks through the fur. She can see Helena’s bellybutton protruding out of the watermelon-round curve of her pregnant belly. Helena’s arms, forearms, legs, whatever they’re called – they’re bending the wrong way. It looks painful. She looks painful. Sarah’s sister.

“Sorry,” she says. “Long flight.” She sits up, runs a hand through her hair, and Helena looks at her and whines. She stretches out her forelegs, shakes out; her tail wags. Sarah looks away from her, finally, looks around the basement – the door at the top firmly locked, matching food and water bowls on the floor, gnawed-on chew toys scattered around the room. She’d asked Alison to look after her sister, and Alison had looked after her dog instead. Which is fine, because Helena is both.

At least Alison hadn’t put a collar on her, right?

“How’ve you been,” Sarah says, and then stops. “Shit. Sorry. I know you can’t…” she gestures vaguely around her mouth, feeling guilty about it. Her mouth. That it’s there. That it can speak, every single day of the month.

Helena grins a canine grin at her, dances around in circles. Her bones bend at weird angles as she does, always a few seconds from breaking. Her tail wags and wags and Sarah wishes that it didn’t.

“Great,” she says weakly. “Glad you’re doing alright here, Helena.” She holds out a hand and Helena bumps her face into it before dancing back and then shoving her whole body against Sarah’s body. Sarah holds her. From this angle, it’s mostly just fur – like holding a big German Shepherd or something. Sarah buries her face into the ruff of fur at Helena’s neck and smells what’s either Alison’s soap or dog shampoo. Doesn’t matter. At least Helena is clean, here. She has water in that bowl. Squeaky toys. Sarah hugs her tighter and Helena obligingly lets out a _whuff_ of breath and allows it.

“In a few more days you’ll be back to talking, right?” Sarah says, voice small. “You can tell me all about it. Everything that happened while I was gone.”

Helena makes some growly noises that might be words, Sarah can’t tell, Sarah doesn’t even know what Helena is trying to tell her. She scratches underneath the big heavy coat of fur and Helena sighs over her shoulder.

“Missed you,” Sarah says.

 _Whuff_ , Helena says back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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